Breaking from the Cocoon into a Beautiful Girl

After wandering around for most of the day, the three of them returned to Courtyard No. 1 after night had already fallen.

Qing Lin carried two small cloth bags filled with little trinkets she had picked up in the city. All the way back, she chirped to Xiao Yi Xian about how outrageously huge the warhammer displayed outside that weapons shop had been.

Lu Heng took the cloth bags from Qing Lin and set them on the stone table, suddenly recalling something.

"Where's Zi Yan?"

Courtyard No. 1 was quiet. Going by that girl's usual temperament, after they had spent the entire day out without taking her along, she should have been waiting at the entrance to demand an explanation. Yet there was not a soul in the courtyard.

Xiao Yi Xian noticed it too. "Wasn't she in seclusion?"

"I'll take a look."

Lu Heng turned and headed for the side room where Zi Yan stayed. The moment he pushed open the door, his steps halted.

The bed inside was empty.

In its place was a purple cocoon of light about three feet in diameter, hovering half an inch above the bed. Faint violet-gold patterns flowed across its shell, pulsing bright and dim like breathing.

A thin layer of transparent crystal had condensed over the cocoon's surface, and within it, the vague outline of a curled-up humanoid figure could be seen.

"All right."

Lu Heng withdrew his hand and rubbed his chin.

In the original story, when Zi Yan broke through to the Dou Emperor realm, Xiao Yan had also been in seclusion, breaking through to the Dou Emperor realm.

But in this timeline of his, Xiao Yan was only a Da Dou Shi.

Lu Heng had no idea how many days Zi Yan's breakthrough would take this time.

Just